Crystallization-Study of GENESIS(3)
Message Nine
Blessing
Scripture Reading: Gen. 47:7, 10; 48:9, 14-16, 20;Heb. 5:6; 7:7; 11:21; Num. 6:22-27; 2 Cor. 13:14
I. To be transformed is to be metabolically changed in ournatural life, to be mature is to be filled with the divine lifethat changes us, and blessing is the overflow of life:
A. As Jacob was about to bless the two sons of Joseph, he spoke ofthe Triune God in his experience—Gen. 48:9, 15-16:
1. The God before whom Abraham and Isaac walked is theFather.
2. The God who shepherded Jacob "all my life to this day" isthe Spirit.
3. The Angel who redeemed him from all evil is the Son.
B. Jacob realized that his destiny and existence were absolutely inthe hands of the shepherding God; the experience of the TriuneGod is so that we may bless others with the Triune God.
II. The strongest sign of Jacob's maturity was his blessing ofothers:
A. The first thing Jacob did after arriving in Egypt was to blessPharaoh (47:7, 10); according to Hebrews 7:7, "the lesser isblessed by the greater"; this is a proof that in God's sightJacob was greater than Pharaoh.
B. In order to bless others, we must be filled to the brim with lifeso that life overflows to them; Jacob's mature life was filledwith blessings; he blessed Pharaoh, the two sons of Joseph(Gen. 48:8-20), and his own sons (49:1-28); those blessings ofhis sons were prophecies related to the destiny of the twelvetribes of Israel.
III. The principle of blessing is that the greater blesses thelesser—Heb. 7:7:
A. To be greater or lesser is not a matter of age but a matterof the measure of Christ; we are greater or lesser according toour measure of Christ.
B. Although John the Baptist was so close to Christ, he did nothave Christ within him; those in the kingdom of the heavensare not only close to Christ but also have Christ within them;for this reason, the least in the kingdom of the heavens isgreater than John—Matt. 11:11.
C. If by having more of Christ we are greater than others, thenwe are qualified to bless them, for the greater always blessesthe lesser.
D. To bless others means to minister Christ to them; we blesspeople with the very Christ in whom we participate and whomwe enjoy; if we enjoy Christ more, we have more of Christ tominister to others.
IV. The meaning of blessing is that blessing is the overflow ofGod through someone's maturity in life:
A. God cannot flow Himself into others without a human channel;the only humanity that God can use as a channel is theone saturated and permeated with God—Phil. 1:23-25.
B. Maturity in life is a matter of being filled with God; when weare full of God, we have the overflow of God, and thus we areable to bless everyone we meet.
V. The first case of blessing in the Bible is Melchizedek'sblessing of Abraham (Gen. 14:18-20);Melchizedek is a type ofChrist (Heb. 5:6):
A. Blessing is the overflow of God, and this overflow is brought topeople through the priests; we all need to be priests (Rev. 1:6;1 Pet. 2:5, 9), those who bring people to God.
B. If we would bless others, we must be close to God ourselves;people need God's blessing, because they are far away fromHim.
C. A priest eliminates the distance between God and the people;he brings those who are far off into the presence of God—cf.Exo. 28:9-12, 15-21.
D. Before we are blessed by a priest, there may be a distancebetween us and God, but after he blesses us, this distance istaken away, and we are brought into the presence of God toshare in the enjoyment of God.
VI. In Numbers 6:22-27 we see a pattern of blessing by thepriests; this blessing is neither an Old Testament blessingnor a New Testament blessing; rather, it is the eternal blessingof the Triune God, which is the Triune God dispensingHimself in His Divine Trinity into us for our enjoyment:
A. Jehovah bless you and keep you can be ascribed to the Father—v. 24:
1. The Father blesses us in every way and in every aspect inHis love (cf. Eph. 1:3), and He keeps us in every way andin every aspect in His power (cf. John 17:11, 15; 1 Pet. 1:5).
2. The Lord prayed that the Father would keep us in Hisname (John 17:11); this is to keep us in the dispensingTriune God; the Lord Jesus went on to pray that the Fatherwould keep us out of the hands of the evil one (v. 15).
3. We should pray for the blessing of being kept absolutely inthe dispensing of the Triune God and altogether outside ofthe evil one; what a blessing this is!
B. Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be gracious to youcan be ascribed to the Son—Num. 6:25:
1. In Luke 1:78, when the Lord Jesus was about to be born,Zachariah prophesied, "The rising sun will visit us fromon high"; the rising sun is the Son in the Divine Trinity;this implies God's incarnation to show Himself to us in ashining way—Matt. 4:16; John 8:12.
2. The word face in Numbers 6:25 signifies presence; as theOne whose face shines upon us, Christ the Son is the visiblepresence of the invisible God—2 Pet. 1:16-18; Matt. 17:1-2.
3. Numbers 6:25 speaks not only of Jehovah making His faceshine upon us but also of Jehovah being gracious to us;these two points added together equal John 1:14, 16-17.
4. God's incarnation was the shining of His presence, andalong with this shining, there was grace; this grace is thegrace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is actually ChristHimself—2 Cor. 13:14.
C. Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you and give you peacecan be ascribed to the Spirit—Num. 6:26:
1. The face denotes the presence of the person, and the countenancedenotes the expression of the person; to lift up ourcountenance upon a person means that we confirm, assure,promise, and give everything to that person.
2. Jesus came as the face of God, and the Holy Spirit comesas the countenance of God; if we grieve Him, His countenancewill drop (Eph. 4:30), but if we obey Him, He will behappy with us, and He will lift up His countenance to confirm us, assure us, guarantee us, promise us, and give useverything.
VII. The blessing of the apostle Paul is seen in 2 Corinthians13:14—"the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love ofGod and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all":
A. In the blessing of the apostle Paul, the Triune God comes to peoplefor their enjoyment; Paul not only brought people into thepresence of God but also brought God into them.
B. On the one hand, to bless others is to bring them into thepresence of God; on the other hand, it is to bring God intothem as love, grace, and fellowship so that they may enjoy theTriune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
C. Love, grace, and fellowship are three stages of God for ourenjoyment—love is within, grace is love expressed, and fellowshipis the transmission of grace into us.
D. The love of God is the source, since God is the origin; the graceof the Lord is the course of the love of God, since the Lord isthe expression of God; and the fellowship of the Spirit is theimpartation of the grace of the Lord with the love of God,since the Spirit is the transmission of the Lord with God, forour experience and enjoyment of the Triune God—the Father,the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with Their divine virtues.
E. The divine revelation of the Divine Trinity in the holy Word isnot for theological study but for the apprehending of how God inHis mysterious and marvelous Divine Trinity dispenses Himselfinto His chosen people, that we as His chosen and redeemedpeople may, as indicated by the apostle's blessing to the Corinthianbelievers, participate in, experience, enjoy, and possessthe processed Triune God now and for eternity.
VIII. The Lord's blessing crosses man's natural maneuvering—Gen. 48:13-20:
A. Most of the time our choosing leads to maneuvering, and God'scrossing hand comes in to bless the one we did not choose; theshifting of the birthright from Manasseh to Ephraim showsthat the Lord's blessing does not depend on man's naturalmaneuvering but on God's desire and selection.
B. In any selection that we make, there is the possibility of maneuveringaccording to our taste and choice; we must not maneuver,and we must not be disappointed; rather, we must believe thatthe Lord's hand will cross over to us.
C. Man's natural concept holds back the Lord's blessing hand(vv. 17-20); the one we think is the best may turn out to be theworst, but one of the opposers may become today's apostlePaul; many will be raised up who do not fit our concept.
IX. Jacob's supplanting hands eventually became blessinghands—25:26; 47:7, 10; 48:14-16; Heb. 11:21:
A. In Genesis 25 we see that Jacob began his supplanting evenwhen he was in his mother's womb, but in Genesis 47 and 48we see that these two supplanting hands have become blessinghands, bringing people into God's presence and ministeringGod into them so that they may enjoy Him.
B. A supplanter, a heel holder, became the greatest person onthe earth at that time; he was able to bless Pharaoh becausehe had become greater than Pharaoh; he became this kind ofperson by the way of life.
C. We need the growth in life and the maturity in life so that wemay be filled with Christ to become those who are able to blessothers.
X. At the time of Genesis 49, when Jacob prophesied concerninghis twelve sons with blessing, he was a God-man, a manfilled, constituted, permeated, and even reorganized withGod; whatever he thought was God's thought, and whateveropinion he expressed was God's opinion—cf. 1 Cor.7:10, 12, 25, 40:
A. In order to prophesy with blessing, we must know God, thedesire of God's heart, and the purpose of God.
B. In order to prophesy with blessing, we must know people; thatis, we must know the actual situation of every person involved.
C. In order to prophesy with blessing, we must be full of theriches of Christ.
D. In order to prophesy with blessing, we must have a strong,active spirit.